Mediawiki as a tool for curriculum development and open education resource alignment

Mediawiki as a tool for curriculum development and open education resource alignment

We love technology and want it to help in education. But the hard fact remains that many students, teachers and classrooms in the developing world lack even the most rudimentary resources, let alone some kind of computer and access to the internet. Can we start bridging the gap effectively and progressively? This session will describe an experience doing this, reviewing 4 years implementing cnbGuatemala.org, a website built on Mediawiki offering teachers the full content of the Guatemalan National Basic Curriculum (early education to upper secondary), complementary teacher development materials and teacher guides and, increasingly, open educational resources hosted both directly on the same server as the curriculum and linked from other websites.

Based on experiences in technical implementation and work with teachers and teacher trainers, the presentation will address the following questions:

What does it mean to bridge the gap between teaching and learning though linked curriculum, methodology and educational resources, and what challenges and opportunities does it offer?

Can we move teachers from being consumers to producers of a curriculum and its educational resources?

What are the implications of using open technologies in curriculum support, both for the curriculum itself and for teaching and learning, and especially across national contexts?

The discussion will invite the audience to engage in brainstorming ideas for translating these lessons into more effective and efficient technological and professional development solutions targeting teachers in developing countries.

This session should be of interest to people willing and able to span the boundary between technology and teachers' day-to-day work. Rather than wading into the depths of any specific element of the socio-technical system supporting efective use of the curriculum (just the software, the curriculum, or teachers' practices), participants will be challenged to think about how a known technology (Mediawiki) can be used and adapted to solve a known problem (applying the curriculum) in an innovative and effective combination, what challenges this poses to traditional practices, and how its implications can be pushed further.